Istanbul!!

Istanbul, where the East meets the West, literally and figuratively.

It was great! I flew from Belgium alone to Istanbul, and a guy from the hotel was waiting there to pick me up. My family were already at the hotel - have been there since the previous day. On the way to the hotel, we passed this magnificent mosque - Ayasofya, or Hagia Sofia.

The hotel wasn't big, it was quite a small one, but it was in the older part of istanbul, and we can walk to most places from there. The view from the coffee house on the upper floor, you can see the Golden Horn, you can see the Topkapi Palace, where the Kings of the past used to live, and you can see at least 6 huge Mosques, their minarets piercing the sky, above the sprawling city, spread out across the vast horizon on hills on both sides of the river/sea.

We went to the Blue Mosque first, or Sultanahmet Cirii. The architecture there was superb. Blue was the hardest colour to catch in ceramic, and thats what made the mosque so special. It had 6 minarets, because the architect got confused with what Sultan Ahmed said. The sultan commanded him to make gold minarets, but the word "gold" and "six" are almost the same in Turkish, so the architect thought he meant six. It was unacceptable at the time, because the only mosque with 6 minarets was the one in Mecca, so as a respect to the Prophet Muhammad, PBUH, the Sultan paid for another minaret at the mosque in Mecca.

THen there was the Hagia Sofia, Saint Sofia. Before, it was a church, but when the Ottoman Empire conquered Istanbul, they used it as a mosque, and when Kamal Attaturk came into power, he made it into a museum. As i was standing in the front part of the building, i couldnt help but think that i was standing at the place where Richard the Lion Hearted was crowned. Before the Ottoman Empire, a lot of Christian Kings had their coronation in the Hagia Sofia, because it was considered as one of the greatest Church in the Christian world, architecture wise, and based upon what i was told, at least.

We went also the grand bazaar. It was HUGE. There were about 4000 shops selling anything you can think of. Everytime we passed the stalls, they would ask if we were Malaysians, we said yes, they asked if we were Muslims, we said yes, and they went "MasyaAllah, Alhamdulillah" (praise be to God, thank God), and then start persuading us to buy. The places that we did decide to buy, them knowing we were Malaysian Muslims,they sarted giving us loads of discount, sometimes more than half the price! And it was quite touching, how Muslims regard each other with such respect and humility. They kept on calling us brothers and sisters (not just in the bazaar), and they were offering us tea (due to customs and traditions as well). But people were generally very nice and warm.

One night, we went to Oriental House for dinner. It was quite a nice experience. They picked us up from our hotel, and they bought us to the place. They had performances going on all throughout the night. They were belly dancers, Turkish music, Sufi "dancing", weddings, and a lot more. The belly dancers were quite fun. Amazing thing was they were dancing in heels. Right in front of the stage, there were these Chinese and British. One belly dancer kept on coming to the Chinese and slapped his head (he was bald, by the way), and she kept on coming to him, being cheeky. Once, she squatted on the stage next to him, and asked him to slap her.. um.. backside.. as she shaked them.. Another time, she asked another Chinese to come on stage with her and try dance. She hit him on the shoulders, he hit her back lightly. She hit him again, he did the same to her. Then she hit him in the chest, he was hesitant, hit her on the shoulders again. She hit him on the chest again, and he hit her on the breast this time. She looked shocked, hit him on the chest again, he hit her on the breast again, and this time she smiled. then it was the backside, etc etc. Another one kept on going to the British guy and putting her skirt over his head. They were quite crude actually, but it was quite fun to see.

They also sang songs from all the countries present during the dinner - Dubai, Iran, China, Korea, US, UK, Russia, and a few others. THey sang rasa sayang for Malaysia.. haha. Owh, being serious here, since UWC always preaches that there is no such thing as being politically correct, so i'm going to just mention it here. I think, at least, a princess of Dubai was present at the dinner. First look at her, you'll see what you expect to see. SHe was covering her whole face with the black thing the Arabs usually use. But when you look carefully, she also wore the black robe thingy, but it was open. Underneath, she was so skimpily clad, and im not exaggerating. She was wearing something like whast bellydancers would usually use. Pants, and a very skimpy top, barely covering anything at all. She was one of the women called onto stage to dance a bit, and she went up, not ashamed at all at the irony that her face was covered, but her body was in such a state. Again, i couldnt help thinking - no wonder people ridicule the Islamic faith, if this is how Muslims carry themselves. Astaghfirullah.

Oh, another thing that was quite fun, was that a lot of people here seemed to know about Malaysia. Some even knew how to speak some Malay. haha. One shopkeeper was "mari sini, beli. A lot of Malaysians say mahal, but murah!" lol.

I'm at a lot as to what more to say right now. I'm at the airport, so i cant really transfer photos from my camera right now. So once I arrive in Dubai at uncle Husam and aunty Sabra's house, i will upload the picture and post them here. So sorry for this long post without any pictures.

I suddenly feel like kebab right now.. -.-"